ZINC LOZENGES. Not reg cough drops, ZINC. Get Zand brand with Elderberry. They dont taste as bad as other brands. ZInc helps repair throat tissue. I use them out there and it cuts my playa lung in half.

Keep drinking the tea, any tea, and lots of water. Licorice tea especially

Maybe you need to get to the doctor though, could be an infection and you might need antibiotics? Don't let it linger too long.

maryanimal wrote:I have the same playa lung geospyder. It's not getting better and it's beginning to hurt when I cough.

Mine is not very productive. I explained it to the local pharmacist and she suggested Mucinex DM or Robitussin DM. I chose Mucinex since it comes in tablet form and lasts 12 hours. We'll see what happens. The worse part of the cough, other than the physical aspect, is that I've been sleeping on the couch ever since I got back from Burning Man. Something about coughing in a water bed keeping your partner awake. My wife wants the cough over so we can get back together

You know it's going to be a bad day when you jump out of bed and miss the floor.

It probably was Playa Lung originally but if not treated it can become bronchitis or worse, pneumonia. I am surprised at how many people I know that have Playa Lung this year. Last Friday, when I was losing my voice, I was telling people that I was going through puberty and having strange dreams of sheep Damn - I'm seventy next year and I don't want zits again

You know it's going to be a bad day when you jump out of bed and miss the floor.

geospyder wrote:It probably was Playa Lung originally but if not treated it can become bronchitis or worse, pneumonia. I am surprised at how many people I know that have Playa Lung this year. Last Friday, when I was losing my voice, I was telling people that I was going through puberty and having strange dreams of sheep Damn - I'm seventy next year and I don't want zits again

70? you're a youngster! I do most of my coughing at night and in the morning. I'm feeling like I'm getting pleurisy(sp.?) We'llsee at the end of the week. If it hasn't gotten any better, then I'll pay a visit to my MD.

btw, has anyone seen wedeliver lately? I'd like to contact him!

Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious.

The best remedy is keeping your body healthy and boosting your own immune system. Take your multi-vitamins, eat well, get rest, drink lots of fluids, break out the vegetable juicer and make sure to include a fresh beet in there.

If it hasn't gotten better by the beginning of this next week, you may indeed want to see a doctor in case it is indeed some kind of bacterial infection which would be better aided by a stiff round of antibiotics..

I'm wondering if you can get Valley Fever on the playa. It's pretty catchy in central Calif. You can die from it if it isn't taken care of in time. I used to live outside of Bakersfield, the anus of Calif, and it was extremely prevelant there. The spores live in the dust and dirt there.

Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious.

I inhaled a few pounds in the Friday dust storm but have no ill effects. At all. No cough, no soreness, no scratchiness, and snot-clear. I'm not profoundly unlucky.

Playa dust can be dangerous and either exacerbate or create new maladies. It's also not a normal thing for your body (well, most Burners' bodies) to deal with, so your body may react in unexpected ways.

I would go with a little bit of steam and some drops of eucalyptus in the steam , plenty of vinegar in the diet, and yarrow tincture. Avoid dairy, excess sugar, wheat because these things cause mucus buildup. Eat plenty of astringent foods like vegetables, citrus, and vinegar to help clear out the mucus. Eat plenty of fruit for Vitamin C. See a doctor if it persists because you might have a bronchial infection.

Moving this over to the Q&A Tips And Tricks board, since that's a much better fit.

Best remedy is of course to avoid getting it in the first place, which I think is a simple matter of a few basic steps. First, stay fucking hydrated. When you're not getting enough fluids, your body's ability to produce mucous and keep your innards nice and juicy is diminished. Second, keep that nose clean. Blow it, pick it, blast it with dynamite if you need to. Okay, maybe not dynamite, but a good non-medicated saline solution nasal spray will do the trick. The dust gets all up in there and turns the inside of your nose into a dusty, crusty funk which paves the way for the corrosive alkali dust to get all the way down into your throat and lungs. Think of it as cleaning your body's air filter. Third, minimize what's getting into your system with bandanas, dust masks, or respirators (use what works for you). If you're getting playa lung or any kind of hacking cough, it means you're not doing a good job on at least one of those steps.

I don't have any specific or well-tested solutions because in all the years I've been burning, I've never gotten it. My campmates taught me well in my first year, and stressed the importance of the above. But treating it should be fairly common sense. Your throat and lungs have become dry and irritated by the corrosive alkali dust. Try a remedy or two, if you don't feel any relief, go see a doctor. When it comes to your lungs and the ability to breathe, don't fuck around.

You might do some searching for playa dust composition and particle size and then take that to your doctor. It has silicates and organic matter, which your body is trying to reject by coughing. There might be some docs in the Bay Area that have experience in playa side effects.

some seeing eye wrote:You might do some searching for playa dust composition and particle size and then take that to your doctor. It has silicates and organic matter, which your body is trying to reject by coughing. There might be some docs in the Bay Area that have experience in playa side effects.